TRON: REDUX
With live soundtrack by 3EPKANO
4pm / 29 June 2008
Upstairs at the Ha'penny Bridge Inn (Dublin)
TRON is a debugging command in the BASIC computer programming language. It is an abbreviation of "TRace ON". This command "traces" the execution of a program, listing each instruction as executed on the screen, so that the programmer can 'debug' the program, finding flaws and eliminating them to make the programme run more smoothly. It is used primarily for debugging GOTO and GOSUB commands. GOTO is a keyword found in several higher-level programming languages which causes an unconditional jump or transfer of control from one point in a program to another. The TRON command's opposite is TROFF, or "TRace OFF", used to turn off command tracing.
The TRON analogy within experimental film-making is that, with a basic understanding of storytelling and structuring a narrative, particularly regarding the commercial screenplay paradigm as a basic programme, any film artist has the ability to fundamentally change a pre-existing piece of work or fragment thereof, 'de-bugging' the original and transferring control to a different set of principles. This month The Experimental Film Club 'de-bugs' a commercial piece of work with a unconditional transfer of control to the live event. Walt Disney's 'Tron' will be re-edited live by his distant cousin Destiny Law as 'The Race Is On', with an original live soundtrack improvised by '3epkano', backed up with a programme of 'Appropriation' - films made from other films - with restructured and inverted images and narratives, re-contextualizing films. But now the command tracing is off - TROFF - because in experimental cinema there is no parallel for the paradigm.
The TRON analogy within experimental film-making is that, with a basic understanding of storytelling and structuring a narrative, particularly regarding the commercial screenplay paradigm as a basic programme, any film artist has the ability to fundamentally change a pre-existing piece of work or fragment thereof, 'de-bugging' the original and transferring control to a different set of principles. This month The Experimental Film Club 'de-bugs' a commercial piece of work with a unconditional transfer of control to the live event. Walt Disney's 'Tron' will be re-edited live by his distant cousin Destiny Law as 'The Race Is On', with an original live soundtrack improvised by '3epkano', backed up with a programme of 'Appropriation' - films made from other films - with restructured and inverted images and narratives, re-contextualizing films. But now the command tracing is off - TROFF - because in experimental cinema there is no parallel for the paradigm.
JEAN FRANCOIS NEPLAZ' "ANTE INFERNO"
(2007, Colour/B&W, Video, 100mins.)
Jean Francois Neplaz's 'Ante Inferno' utilizes old school video mixing effects, solarizing clippings of classic silent films over raw video footage of industrial assembly lines, construction sites and political events. An industrial soundtrack creates a monotonous, hypnotic rhythm on which the fragmented film builds. Within the montage newsreel footage of wartime Europe and Sado-masochistic orgies flash through, bringing the underbelly closer to the top. Similar to Zoe Greenberg's film, which integrates the film-making techniques, 'Ante Inferno' uses the rhythm of the snow and distortion of poor tape tension on VHS to contribute to the backbone of the montage.
ZOE GREENBERG'S "3 HOLES"
(2005, Colour, 16mm, 3mins.)
Zoe Greenberg is a Canadian film-maker working in New York. Her '3 Holes' is a montage created from the cutting room floor, including clippings from Moira Tierney's 'American Dreams', here seen as 'smaerD naciremA'. The images and soundscape telegraph through the paraphernalia of film-making, through the punched leader and the distortion of dirty tape heads. Playing on the viewers curiosity, the obscuring of the images and sequences only urges us to look deeper, and the mundane adopts a tone of profundity.
ALAN LAMBERT'S "ZOE GREENBERG'S "3 BLANKETS"
(2007, Colour, 16mm/Mini-Dv, 3 mins.)
While compiling the Solus collective Dvd I was arranging to return the mini-DV tape of '3 Holes' to Zoe. I hadn't seen the film and so I decided to watch it on my mini-DV camera before returning it. What I saw was an unexpected and fascinating series of abstract patterns, squares of colour rotating and dancing randomly across the screen, with images sporadically breaking through. I realised that I was watching her NTSC tape on my PAL camera, and the short film I had just seen was a unique creation of the ether between the formats. With Zoe's permission I captured the film as I had seen it, but I added to the soundtrack a choral sample which I felt emphasised a strangely ethnic undertone to the pixel patterns, which, to my eyes, recalled the traditional woven patterns of textiles common to many cultures, particularly Native American Navajo blankets.
By the time Moira Tierney's 'American Dreams' appears here it is appropriation upon appropriation.
By the time Moira Tierney's 'American Dreams' appears here it is appropriation upon appropriation.
ORIOL SANCHEZ'S "PROFANACIONES"
(2008, B&W and Colour, Video, 22mins.)
Profanations is a three channel video work consisting of appropriation and reconstruction of images and sequences from films by Jules Marey, Pudovkin, Kirsanoff, Eisenstein, Romero, Halpern, Kulechov ... from which a series of micro-stories have been created. These stories have been organized according to Campanas De Luz ( Light Bells ), a music composition by Riera Robuste. Profanations emerges from an interest in exploring relationships between sound and image with narratives and abstraction, playing with the [dis]articulation found in film narratives; creating a rupture within narrative and representation.Curated by Alan Lambert.
